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Comparing Undergrad Electrical Engineering Programs at Different Schools

            All schools like to claim their programs are far superior than the programs of their contemporaries and it is a major draw of many students to a particular school. However, I am a natural skeptic when it comes to this type of thing so I decided to take a look at the Electrical Engineering programs of some notable universities in both the United States and around the world in order to compare it to mine. I only looked at the Electrical Engineering classes students were required to take as each school has a different sequence of general education classes that cannot be directly compared to each other. I also excluded those classes that lay the foundation of engineering classes such as physics and calculus due to every school requiring them and I did not want to get carpel tunnel trying to type it that many times. However, this should be a comprehensive overview of the basic classes every electrical engineer should take in order to earn the degree without including technical electives because once again those are specific to the school and not every EE will take the same classes due to having different interests. There is also senior design which every electrical engineer must do, however, it is not listed due to there being so many ways it can be completed. Although this is not a full list of every University it provides an adequate overview of the classes you should expect to take in the pursuit of an Electrical Engineering degree. 

Class List from Michigan Tech In order of class taken

First we are starting out at my university because I am most familiar with this program and am just a little biased towards it. If you look at it you will notice it is a heavy set of classes and will see many similarities to other universities.

  1. EE 1110- Essential Math
  2. EE 1111- Intro to ECE
  3. EE 2111- Electric Circuits
  4. CS 1111- Intro C/C++
  5. EE 2112- Circuits 2
  6. EE 2174- Digital Logic
  7. EE 3120- Electric energy systems
  8. EE 3131 Electronics
  9. EE 3160- Signals and Systems
  10. EE 3140- Electromagnetics
  11. EE 3901- Design Fund
  12. EE 3180- Probability and Random signal analysis
  13. EE 3261- Control systems
  14. EE 3171- Micro controller applications
  15. EE 3250- Intro to Comm Theory
  16.  Technical Electives

Class list from other Universities

Moving on from my university we will take a look at other Universities from around the world including some of the top universities both domestic to the United States and abroad.

Domestic

  1. University of Michigan
    1. EECS 215- Introduction to Circuits
    2. EECS 216- Signal and Systems
    3. EECS 230- Electromagnetics
    4. EECS 280- Programing and intro data structures
    5. EECS 320- Intro to semiconductor device theory
    6. EECS 301- Probabilistic methods in EE
    7. Technical electives
  2. University of California- Los Angeles
    1. Computer Science 31 — Introduction to Computer Science I
    2. Computer Science 32 — Introduction to Computer Science II
    3. Electrical and Computer Engineering 3 — Introduction to Electrical Engineering
    4. Electrical and Computer Engineering M16 (or Computer Science M51A) — Logic Design of Digital Systems
    5. Electrical and Computer Engineering 10 (Circuit Theory I) and 11L (Circuits Laboratory I)
    6. Electrical and Computer Engineering 102 — Systems and Signals
    7. Electrical and Computer Engineering 110 (Circuit Theory II) and 111L (Circuits Laboratory II)
    8. Electrical and Computer Engineering 113 — Digital Signal Processing
    9. Electrical and Computer Engineering 131A — Probability and Statistics
    10. Electrical and Computer Engineering 101A — Engineering Electromagnetics
    11. Electrical and Computer Engineering Core Course or Computer Science 33 (Introduction to Computer Organization)
    12. Technical Electives
  3. Georgia Institute of Technology
    1. ECE 2026 Intro Signal Processing 
  1. ECE 2031 Digital Design Lab 
  2. ECE 2035 Programming HW/SW System or ECE 2036 Engr Software Design
  3. ECE 2040 Circuit Analysis
  4. ECE 3025 Electromagnetics
  5. ECE 3040 Microelectronic Circuits
  6. ECE 3043 Circuits & Electronics Lab
  7. ECE 3072 Elec Energy Systems 
  8. ECE 3084 Signals and Systems
  9. Technical Electives
  1. California Institute of Technology
    1. EE 40 introduction to semiconductors and sensors
    2. EE 44 Circuits and Systems
    3. EE 45 Electronics laboratory
    4. EE 113 feedback and control systems
    5. EE 51 principles of microprocessor systems
    6. EE 151 electromagnetics
    7. EE 116 intro to stochastic processes
    8. EE 111 signals systems and transforms
    9. EE 90 analog electronics
    10. EE 160 communication system fundamentals
    11. Technical
  2. University of Pennsylvania
    1. ESE 111 Circuits signals networks and systems
    2. CIS 110 programming in java
    3. ESE 112 Electromagnetics
    4. ESE 215 Electrical Circuits and Systems
    5. ESE 218 Physics and models of semiconductor devices
    6. ESE 224 Signal and information processing 
    7. CIS 240 Computing
    8. ESE 201 Engineering probability
    9. ESE Electives
  3. University of Texas- Austin
    1. EE 302, Intro to Electrical and Computer Engineering
    2. EE 306, Introduction to Computing
    3. EE 319K, Introduction to Embedded Systems
    4. EE 411, Circuit Theory
    5. EE 313, Linear Systems and Signals
    6. EE 312, Software Design Implementation I
    7. EE 312, Software Design Implementation I
    8. EE 351K, Probability and Random Processes
    9. EE 333T, Engineering Communications*
    10. EE 364D, Introduction to Engineering Design
    11. EE 464R/K/H/C/G, Senior Design Project
  4. Stanford
    1. EE 100- The Electrical Engineering Profession
    2. CS 106B- Programming Abstractions
    3. EE 101A- Circuits 1
    4. EE 102A- Signal Processing and Linear systems
    5. EE 65- Modern Physics for Engineers
    6. EE 108-Digital System Design
    7. EE 178- Probabilistic Systems Analysis
    8. Technical Electives

Abroad

  1. National University of Singapore
    1. EE2012 Analytical Methods in Electrical and Computer Engineering
    2. EE2023 Signals and Systems
    3. EE2026 Digital Design
    4. EE2027 Electronic Circuits
    5. EE2028 Microcontroller Programming and Interfacing
    6. EE2033 Integrated Systems Lab
  2. ETH Zurich
    1. networks and circuits 1
    2. networks and circuits 2
    3. digital technology
    4. Computer science 1 
    5. computer science 2
    6. Semiconductors circuits
    7. semiconductor devices 
    8. Signals and Systems1
    9. Signals and systems 2
    10. Electromagnetics
    11. technical computer science
    12. technical electives
    13. senior project
  3. Nanyang Technological University
    1. Physics Foundation for EEE
    2. Introduction to Materials for Electronics
    3. Introduction to Engineering & Practices
    4. EEE Laboratory I From
    5. Computational Thinking to Programming
    6. Circuit Analysis
    7. Analog & Digital Electronics
    8. Semiconductor Fundamentals
    9. Engineering Mathematics I & II
    10. Introduction to Data Science & Artificial Intelligence
    11. Signals & Systems
    12. Data Structures & Algorithms
    13. Introduction to EEE Design and project
    14. Engineering Electromagnetics
    15. Microprocessors
    16. Design & Innovation Project
  4. Imperial College
    1. Analogue Electronics 1
    2. Analysis of Circuits
    3. Digital Electronics 1
    4. Energy Conversion
    5. Engineering Design and Practice
    6. Introduction to Signals and Communications
    7. Mathematics 1
    8. Semiconductor Devices
    9. Software Engineering 1: Introduction to Computing
    10. Algorithms and Data Structures
    11. Analogue Electronics 2
    12. Communication Systems
    13. Computer Architecture
    14. Control Engineering
    15. Digital Electronics 2
    16. Mathematics 2
    17. Power Engineering
    18. Signals and Linear Systems
    19. Choose four from
      1. Analogue Integrated Circuits and Systems
      2. Artificial Intelligence
      3. Biomedical Electronics
      4. Communication Networks
      5. Communication Systems
      6. Control Engineering
      7. Digital Signal Processing
      8. Electrical Energy Systems
      9. Mathematics for Signals and Systems
      10. Microwave Technology
      11. Optoelectronics 
    2. Choose two from
      1. Advanced Electronic Devices
      2. Advanced Signal Processing
      3. Digital System Design
      4. Embedded Systems
      5. High Level Programming
      6. Instrumentation
      7. Introduction to Machine Learning
      8. Power Electronics
      9. Real-time Digital Signal Processing
  2. Tsinghua
    1. 00220033 (Computer network and Internet)
    2. 00220132 (Theory and Application of System Design)
    3. 20220044 (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
    4. 20220053 (Electrotechnics)
    5. 20220122 (Fundamentals of Virtual Instrument)
    6. 20220174 (Principles of Electric Circuits A(1))
    7. 20220214 (Computer Architecture and Application)
    8. 20220216 (Experiments for Principles of Electric Circuits B)
    9. 20220221 (Experiments for Principles of Electric Circuits A)
    10. 20220314 (Electrotechnics and Electronics A)
    11. 20220324 (Electrotechnics and Electronic Engineering B)
    12. 20220332 (Principles of Electric Circuits A(2))
    13. 20220353 (Fundamentals of Electromagnetic Field)
    14. 20250064 (Fundamentals of Analog Electronics)
    15. 30220323 (High Voltage Engineering)
    16. 30220334 (Electric Machinery Fundamentals)
    17. 30220351 (Experiments for Electric Machinery)
    18. 30220363 (Automatic Control Systems)
    19. 30220372 (Programming Projects)
    20. 30220382 (Object-Oriented Programming)
    21. 30220392 (Foundations of Computer Programming)
    22. 30220403 (Fundamentals of Communication Systems)
    23. 30220414 (Fundamentals of Power Electronics)
    24. 40220063 (Fundamentals of Protective Relaying Technology)
    25. 40220072 (Modern Electrical Power Plant Engineering)
    26. 40220301 (Recognition Practice)
    27. 40220341 (Experiments for Power System)
    28. 40220392 (Electric Power Dispatch Automation)
    29. 40220412 (Microcontroller techniques and experiments)
    30. 40220422 (Principle & Experiment of Digital Signal Processing)
    31. 40220432 (Overvoltages and Its Protection)
    32. 40220442 (Power System Stability and Control)
    33. 40220452 (Power Electronics Simulation)
    34. 40220462 (Fundamental and Application of Power Apparatus)
    35. 40220472 (Condition Monitoring and Fault Diagnosis of Electrical Equipment)
    36. 40220502 (Lectures on Advances in Electrical Engineering)
    37. 40220590 (Comprehensive Thesis Training)
    38. 40220653 (Signals and Systems)
    39. 40220682 (Design & Analysis for Electronic Machine System)
    40. 40220692 (Introduction on Electricity Market)
    41. 40220723 (Power System Analysis)
    42. 40220732 (Electric Drives and Control)
    43. 40220742 (Analysis of Electric Machinery)
    44. 40220762 (Dielectric materials and insulation technology)
    45. 40220772 (Microprocessor based Protective Relaying and Automatic Control Technology)
    46. 40220782 (Information theory and power system)
    47. 40220793 (DC Power Transmission Technology)
    48. 40220802 (Power System Forecasting)
    49. 40220812 (Power Transmission and Distribution)
  3. Technical University of Munich
  1. EI00110 Computer Engineering and Programming
  2. EI00120 digital technology
  3. EI00130 circuit theory
  4. EI00210 Electricity and magnetism
  5. EI00220 system theory
  6. IN8009 Algorithms and Data Structures
  7. EI00310 Electromagnetic field theory
  8. EI00320 Solid State, Semiconductor and Component Physics
  9. EI00330 signal theory
  10. EI00340 Stochastic signals
  11. EI00410 Electrical power engineering
  12. EI00420 Electronic circuits
  13. EI00430 Measuring System and Sensor Technology
  14. EI00440 communications engineering
  15. EI00450 control systems
  16. EI0310 Discrete Mathematics for Engineers

            As you can see the programs at the different universities aren’t to different after all with almost all of the classes at one university being taught at the other universities. This isn’t to say that the classes are all taught in the same way or have the exact same content in them. In fact I know at the University of Michigan there is much more theory emphasized in the classes than in Michigan Tech where there is a focus on application of theory through lab work. Each university has its own way of teaching and doing things which will suit different people better than others, however, when selecting the university select the teaching style that is best for you because the Electrical Engineering program isn’t terribly different.

Sources:

All of my information came directly from the university websites and information about their programs.